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Hi, I'm Torrey. Welcome to Left Field, where creativity runs amok and imagination is ALWAYS more important than knowledge. Shoes are not allowed but ties are optional. This is a repository of snippets from my life out here in Left Field. One never knows what shiny bits of creativity will be found here... cards, scrapbook layouts, photography, poetry, recipes, ponderings, rantings and musings. It could be anything! Life in Left Field is always changing, always real, always ...interesting.

March 8, 2012

Star Treknology -- it's here!

Wow, am I slacking. My poor blog is so neglected. Poor blog. It sits here, patiently, waiting for me to write on its virtual pages with my imaginary pixelated pen. Now that last sentence just sounds silly. Can you imagine someone from, say, 50 years ago reading that? They'd be scratching their head and wondering what type of coded message that was and whether or not it was meant to send secrets to the Russians.

Technology has made exponential leaps in the last few decades. Today I read an article about a car from Germany (yes, it was a Mercedes) that they totally covered in LEDs on one side and had a camera hooked up to the opposite side (facing outward) so that the camera's image was projected on the LED-covered side. What this means is...that the car was stealthed...like a Klingon warship (or is that Romulan?). It was pretty amazing to see. I know this is a crude version of stealth-technology, but ya gotta start somewhere! Click HERE for a fascinating article and video about this.

Ok...so here is the pic of the car in stealth mode. Can you see it? It's just to the right of the road in front of the trees.

Here it is with a colored image in front of its camera so that it projects that image to the front side of the car...

Scientists at Duke University are also working on "cloaking" devices that employ the use of electromagnetic doohickies that somehow make objects undetectable to certain wavelengths of light, e.g. invisible.

There are other Star Trekkian technologies that are being realized. Wait, I don't like that term..."Star Trekkian Technology" too...cumbersome...I think from now on I'll dub it "Star Treknology". Yeah, that's better. Anyway, the medical tricorder may soon be in production with the recent advances of virtual radiology and flexible imaging screens. We already have el-giganto versions of it (PET scans, MRIs, etc)...but soon there will be hand-held models.

And Uhura with her ever-present ear communication thingie that looked like a honey dipper? I'd say that's a Bluetooth, wouldn't you?

Believe it or not, they already have transparent aluminum. Remember, from the movie Star Trek IV--The Voyage Home? Scotty used transparent aluminum to create a giant aquarium for the whales because it was stronger and lighter weight than any other polymer out there? Well, someone out there really has developed transparent aluminum. It's called ALON (aluminum oxynitride), and it's being manufactured by the Surmet Corporation. And, the government (of course) is testing it for use as armor...and guess what? It actually works. It's lightweight and very resilient--even wards off armor-piercing bullets. Who knew?

-Now, if we could teleport people and have a food replicator, we'd be set.